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Violent video games are played all over the globe, but only in America do we have such a huge problem with school shootings.

My primary quarrel with the NRA on violent video games is simply this: violent video games are everywhere but the only place where regular mass shootings occur (at schools, theaters, etc.) is the United States.

Therefore, the claim that violent video games create violent actions strikes me as absurd. There may be other cultural reasons behind these shootings that are unique to America, but violent media is not one of them.

Whether tighter gun control is the answer is another open question---and an even more difficult question is what sort of gun control would be feasible or effective. I do think there are ways we could demand more responsibility out of gun owners that would not infringe upon their second amendment right to bear arms; I also believe there are problems with gun shows and other loopholes that could be addressed without any threat to responsible gun ownership.

Furthermore, we face a mental health crisis in this country---not because more Americans suffer from mental health than in other countries, but because we have terrible access to mental healthcare in this country.

Unfortunately, many of the same people who oppose gun control also oppose government involvement in healthcare. Perhaps there is a grand bargain to be struck, but I won't cross my fingers.

Either way, it's not clear how increased access to mental healthcare services will make guns less available to people like the shooters responsible for 151 mass shooting deaths in 2012 alone, in schools and movie theaters and shopping malls across the United States.

When I criticize the NRA I am not criticizing gun owners writ large. Many gun owners have told me that the NRA doesn't speak for them, and I think that's great. The video game lobby certainly doesn't speak for me.

Rather, I'm simply critiquing a lobbyist organization which has a very powerful influence over the US government---an organization that doesn't necessarily have the interests of all gun owners at heart at all times.

When that organization decides that the second amendment is more important than the first amendment, and suggests censorship as an answer to violence, I think we have a problem. Setting aside how ludicrous I find the idea of arming teachers or placing armed guards in every school in America, the notion that censoring violent media will somehow prevent school shootings is preposterous.

Once again, violent video games and films are consumed in many countries, but only in America do we have this number of school shootings. Obviously censorship is not the answer.

So when the NRA releases a shooting range app that teaches gun safety and gives people a chance to somehow practice shooting on a touch-screen, I find it absurd more than anything else. I think the NRA is hypocritical primarily because they want to sacrifice the first amendment at the altar of the second; but I'll admit, releasing a shooter app is more tone-deaf than hypocritical.

Criticism of my last post has tended toward something like this: how can I possibly think that shooting targets is the same as shooting "real people" in a video game? My response is simple: do gun owners who fire at targets shaped like people believe they will be made "violent" by doing so? Is there any difference between shooting at a round target or a human-shaped one that psychologically transforms us into murderers? I don't think so.

By no means are all video games appropriate for all ages. But I don't worry that my five year old will turn into a cold-blooded killer if she plays Black Ops II. I worry that she'll have nightmares. There's a big difference. I also don't think kids of all ages should handle every variety of firearm---not because letting very young children fire guns will turn them into killers but because they may not be physically or psychologically ready to handle every single type of weapon yet.

The point is, when people play violent video games they're not looking at those pixel people and thinking of them as "real" people at all, any more than you might look at a target shaped like a person at a range and think of it as a "real" person. Gamers are just as aware of the difference between their animated enemies as gun owners are aware that targets are just targets, regardless of their shape.

Maybe some very mentally unhinged people will see it as "training" for a killing spree; but they could just as easily play a shooting range game and view that as training. That's crazy, though.

Normal people (gamers and gun owners) don't want to shoot real people ever if they don't have to---and indeed, many gun owners are gamers, and I'm quite certain they are well aware of the differences between handling a real gun and pressing buttons that manipulate avatars on a screen.

My quarrel with the NRA---at least in my last post---is simply that I don't believe that either their shooting range app or games like Halo 4 or Grand Theft Auto make people violent. I really don't believe that there is a distinction between the two in terms of what they do to the people who play them.

Tens of millions of these games are sold and tens of millions of people play them on a regular basis and how many of these people become violent killers? It's actually very similar to gun ownership stats: very few gun owners end up going on shooting rampages. Very few gamers go on shooting rampages. Neither guns nor video games cause people to be violent.

The really important distinction is that guns actually do give people the capacity to carry out great harm. That's why people look at guns and think "We should have reasonable restrictions on gun ownership."

Very few people I know want to "get the guns" but even lifelong gun owners that I know agree that there are problems with the culture of guns in this country. While other countries like Switzerland have broad gun ownership, there is a different culture surrounding guns there, and we see almost no shootings whatsoever (and yes, the Swiss also play violent video games.)

Perhaps there is something wrong with American culture, then, that makes us more likely to abuse our gun ownership rights, or that makes us more prone to violence in general. Perhaps it is our rugged individualism. Or perhaps it is our militarism and our massive military budget; our penchant for invading other countries and our glorification of the soldier and "warrior culture." Perhaps it is something else entirely.

I'm not sure what it is, or how it came to be, but there's obviously a problem. We can disagree about the solution, but I find the NRA's broadside against our free speech rights both hypocritical and frightening.

And I find their release of a shooter app---even a "non-violent" shooter app---to be ridiculous after blaming video games for our problems. At the very least I believe it underscores just how little they understand about the topic.

In another world---in a world in which Wayne LaPierre didn't condemn video games for school shootings---the app might be a good idea. Any time we can encourage gun safety and responsibility I'm on board. I'm not sure an app is an effective tool for that, but it's not going to hurt anybody.